Industrial process control and automation systems are often used to automate large and complex industrial processes. These types of control and automation systems routinely include process controllers and field devices like sensors and actuators. Some of the process controllers typically receive measurements from the sensors and generate control signals for the actuators.
Multivariable predictive controllers have long been used in chemical process industries or other industries to drive complex systems that are interactive with transport delays to operate at limits that are economically beneficial. Due to the increasing computational availability in embedded environments, multivariable predictive controllers are now being offered as standard products at the distributed control system (DCS) level. Implementations of embedded multivariable predictive controllers can provide various advantages, such as fault tolerant control, faster execution, easier configuration and maintenance, integrated DCS displays, and better alarming.